Title: Biden’s Top DHS Official Previously Opposed Deporting Convicted Felons, Restricting Immigration Enforcement
Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, a key official in the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has a history of advocating against deporting convicted felons and imposing limitations on immigration enforcement, according to her previous statements reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Wadhia was appointed as the Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties by DHS in April 2022. Prior to her current role, Wadhia has actively worked to curtail ICE arrests, reduce the use of detention centers, and eliminate the term illegal immigrant.
Before joining the administration, Wadhia served as the associate dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Penn State Law. Her appointment drew criticism from former ICE Chief of Staff Jon Feere, who remarked that she lacked experience in oversight or agency management, positioning her as a policy advocate opposed to immigration enforcement.
One of Wadhia’s previous statements came during a November 2020 talk for the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, where she questioned the reliance on criminality as grounds for immigration enforcement. She argued that prosecutorial discretion and a holistic review of an individual’s circumstances should be a determining factor.
In a 2017 interview, Wadhia expressed her vision for immigration reform, emphasizing the need to decrease the use of immigration detention. She highlighted the historical bipartisan support for comprehensive immigration reform and criticized the current administration’s lack of prioritization on this issue.
During a February 2021 talk on Racism in U.S. Immigration Law and Policy, Wadhia called for the abandonment of terms such as illegal immigrant, illegal immigration, and illegal alien. She argued that these labels were exclusionary and inconsistent with the values of inclusion and equity in the country.
Wadhia has also expressed support for granting illegal immigrants access to driver’s licenses during a panel discussion titled The Intersection of Policing and Race in January 2022. She acknowledged that several states already allow driver’s licenses for individuals regardless of their immigration status and expressed her desire to see this policy more broadly implemented.
In her current position at DHS, Wadhia chairs the Case Management Pilot Program (CMPP) national board. This group oversees the funding that supports the tracking of illegal immigrants released into the country through technology, providing an alternative to detention. The board’s secretariat is provided by the Church World Service, a faith-based organization known for advocating to abolish the DHS.
Wadhia’s background includes founding the Center For Immigrants’ Rights Clinic over a decade ago, which offers student training on immigration cases and legal services for immigrants fighting against deportation.
The DHS and Wadhia did not respond to requests for comment on these matters.
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